My page rank dropped by 20 places 1 day before it was cached....any connection?

[BelfastSEO]

Hi

I've been rather silly and been linking out to other websites for reciprical links.  I added about 20 and just discovered some were bad neigbourhoods.  On Sunday my rankings tanked but the page was only cached the following day on the Monday.  Just wondering if there is any connection.

I genuinely did not know that linking out could was bad and have removed all reciprical links as a precaution.

[Paessler]

How do you determine when your page was cached? It is possible Google had already cached it before, or that Google does not show you the correct date. Also, have you manually checked that your rankings have dropped, or with a rank checking tool? If only with a tool, I would doublecheck it manually. But of course it is possible that google has penalized you for the reciprocal linking. When you do reciprocal linking, make sure only to link to sites that are related to yours, and that add value to the reader.

[linztm]

Rand posted a nice video a while back on Whiteboard Fridays' about the effects of out linking.  The basic jist of it is that you can link out to quality domains without any real benefit or being penalized - however - if you like to poor quality domains then it reflects poorly upon you.

Sorry I can't find the link right now, I'll post it up if I find it!